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Ursula von der Leyen warned that the European Union could block further exports of the coronavirus vaccine, after Italy stopped a shipment to Australia.
“That was not something exceptional,” the president of the European Commission told the business weekly Wirtschaftswoche.
Rome revealed last week that it had blocked the export of 250,700 doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine destined for Australia, blaming a shortage of injections in Europe affected by the virus and a lack of urgent need in Australia.
Ms Von der Leyen said she expects the bloc to receive 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccines every month starting in April, giving a boost to Europe’s stuttering inoculation campaign.
Given the higher delivery volumes promised by manufacturers and “because more vaccines are about to be approved,” von der Leyen told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspaper that the bloc should see a big increase in the arrival of jabs.
The EU will receive “in the second quarter an average of around 100 million doses a month, a total of 300 million at the end of June,” he said.
The 27-nation bloc with a population of 446 million people has received 51.5 million doses of vaccines as of February 26, according to official data published on the EU website.
The EU has already approved three vaccines: BioNTech / Pfizer, AstraZeneca / Oxford and Moderna, but its inoculation campaign has been hit by delays due to production bottlenecks.
Impatience has also grown as the pace of vaccination has lagged behind countries like Britain, Israel and the United States.
The European Medicines Agency will decide on Thursday whether to authorize Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine.
The regulator last week began an ongoing review of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
Meanwhile, Italy recommended the use of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines for people over 65, the Health Ministry said in a statement, overcoming previous doubts that the drug might not be very effective among the elderly.
“The scientific evidence that has been available … indicates that, even in people over 65, the vaccine is capable of providing significant protection,” the ministry said.
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The death toll in Italy exceeds 100,000
Italy has passed the grim milestone of 100,000 official deaths from coronavirus, amid warnings that the spread of new variants is fueling a new wave of infections.
Just over a year since it became the first European country to be overwhelmed by Covid-19, Italy’s Health Ministry recorded another 318 virus-related deaths, bringing the total to 100,103.
The figure is almost certainly an understatement of the true number of victims, but it is nonetheless shocking.
When the pandemic began, “we could never have imagined that after a year … the official death toll would have approached the terrible threshold of 100,000,” said Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who took office last month.
In a video message representing his first public statement in three weeks, he added: “The pandemic has not yet been defeated, but with the acceleration of the vaccination plan, we can see a way out.”
As in many other European countries, Italy’s vaccine program has gotten off to a slow start, largely haunted by a lack of injections.
It is expected to have 50 million doses of vaccines against the coronavirus by the end of June, which will allow the vaccination of “at least half of our population”, some 30 million people, in the next four months, the minister of Cheers, Roberto Speranza.
Italy will start using the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine in people over 65, while also having high hopes for the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
So far, Italy has fully vaccinated only 1.65 million people.
However, Speranza warned that Italy faced difficult weeks as it needs to “flatten this [infection] curve at a time when variants make the virus even more difficult to handle. ”
Syrian President Tests Positive
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma tested positive for Covid-19 after showing minor symptoms, the president’s office said today in a statement.
He said they were both in good health and would continue to work while isolated at home.
“After experiencing mild symptoms resembling … Covid-19, President al-Assad and First Lady Asma Al-Assad underwent a PCR test and the result showed that they are infected with the virus,” he said the presidency in a statement.
“They are in good health and their condition is stable,” the statement added.
Vaccination in Japan progresses slowly
Japan’s Covid-19 inoculation campaign is progressing at a glacial pace, hampered by a lack of supply and a shortage of special syringes that underscore the enormous challenge it faces in its goal of vaccinating all adults by the end of the year.
Since the campaign began three weeks ago, just under 46,500 doses had been administered to front-line medical workers as of Friday.
At the current rate, it would take 126 years to vaccinate Japan’s 126 million population. However, the supply is expected to increase in the coming months.
By contrast, South Korea, which started its vaccinations a week after Japan, had given nearly seven times as many injections as of yesterday.
Unlike many other countries, Japan requires clinical trials for new drugs, including vaccines, to be conducted with Japanese patients, slowing down the approval process.
So far, only the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been approved. Clinical trials have been conducted in Japan for the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines and the vaccines are awaiting regulatory approval.
“I think the sense of urgency among the government is not similar to other G7 countries,” said Haruka Sakamoto, a Keio University physician and researcher, noting Japan’s comparatively low number of cases and death toll.
Japan has had around 438,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases with 8,251 deaths. Cases in Tokyo, which is still in a state of emergency, have dropped from a daily high of 2,520 on January 7 to 237 on March 7.
Dr. Sakamoto said the conservative stance of the Health Ministry stems from earlier examples of a new drug that gained approval relatively quickly only to have the public and the media criticize the ministry for going too fast and compromising safety.
Japan is focusing on vaccinating about 4.8 million medical workers first before moving on to its elderly population of 36 million.
Vaccines Minister Taro Kono has said that while vaccines for those 65 and older will start next month, supplies will be extremely limited.
Unlike South Korea, which has been using low dead space syringes to extract six or even seven doses of Pfizer vaccine from a vial instead of five, and 12 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine per vial instead of ten, Japan You have fallen short of preparing a sufficient supply of the specialty syringes.
That shortage will mean that some doses will be wasted when injections for the elderly begin, Kono has said.
Japan continues to negotiate with Pfizer over supplies, he added, and imports are expected to quadruple in April from March to about 1.7 million vials.
Each shipment must be approved by the EU, which introduced the mechanism in late January to monitor vaccine exports after drug manufacturers announced delays in their supplies to the bloc.
Japan has secured the rights to at least 564 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, the largest volume in Asia, and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has pledged to have enough for the entire population in June, before the start of the Games. Tokyo Olympics on July 23.
Meanwhile, South Korea said it had found no link between the coronavirus vaccine and several recent deaths, as it ordered nearly 100,000 foreign workers to be tested after clusters emerged in dormitories.
Health officials had been investigating the deaths of eight people with underlying conditions who had adverse reactions after receiving AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, but said they found no evidence that the injections played a role.
Children in England go back to school after the lockdown
Children are going back to school in England today for the first time since January, when the government begins to ease tough restrictions thanks to a mass vaccination campaign against the coronavirus.
During the latest closure since the beginning of the new year, schools have remained open to the children of key workers and the most vulnerable.
But all the other children have been home.
The 5-11 year olds return to the classroom this morning, and the 11-18 year old high school students return staggered over the next week.
The government has been able to plan to ease its Covid-19 restriction measures, as around 23 million people in Britain have received at least one first vaccine, helping to reduce the number of cases and ease pressure on hospitals. .
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has outlined plans to lift stay-at-home restrictions in England, hoping that a cautious approach will not trigger a further increase in cases that would force another shutdown.
Britain has suffered more than 123,000 deaths from Covid and is relying on its mass vaccination campaign to lift all restrictions possibly as early as June.
Under new plans for reopening, the government has said it will ease limits on social interaction abroad on March 29, with the reopening of non-essential retail stores starting April 12.
Returning students will face regular tests to slow the spread of the infection, while older children will have to wear masks indoors until April.
Different plans for school return have been put forward in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where delegated governments have powers over educational policy.
Children aged four to eight in Northern Ireland are also back today, with secondary school pupils aged 13 to 18 in
March 22. Others have to wait until April.
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